the vfx show #169: Star Trek Into Darkness

Mike Seymour, Mark Christiansen and Jason Diamond discuss the visual effects of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness.

Show Notes:

Director: J.J. Abrams
Cinematographer: Daniel Mindel
VFX Supervisors and Companies:
Production VFX Supervisor — Roger Guyett — ILM
Co-vfx Supervisor — Pat Tubach — ILM
VFX Supervisor — Ben Grossmann — Pixomondo
VFX Supervisor — Kevin Baillie — Atomic Fiction

Shot Descriptions and examples

Making of the Genesis Sequence — Short video featurette

Nibiru: The Nonexistent Planet — Space.com

Nibiru in Star Trek

The Ethics of Star Trek: Into Darkness

Slit Scan

Bussard Collector

‘Roly Poly’ Scene

How would the unprotected human body react to the vacuum of outer space? — NASA (Hint: Contrary to Jason’s belief, you don’t die immediately or explode.)

fxguidetv #095: Deep Compositing

fxpodcast #250: Star Trek: Into Darkness – ILM’s comp pipeline

Deep Compositing in Rise of the Planet of the Apes at WETA

‘Star Trek’: Every lens flare in Star Trek – video

John Knoll appointed CCO of ILM

2 thoughts on “the vfx show #169: <em>Star Trek Into Darkness</em>”

  1. Great show guys. Mark said it very well when he said he felt they borrowed a lot from the cannon without really adding anything to it. Very insightful and I completely agree.

    The VFX were great. Roger Guyett and the teams did amazing work. The only sequence that really stuck out to me was the fight on Chronos. The phaser battle and hand to hand fight all felt like it was on a set. You could make the case that this is homage to the original series, but it took me out of the movie slightly. The opening scene planet with the red foliage was much stronger as an imagined world.

  2. About the IMAX …

    Just saw the film at the Udvar Hazy IMAX theater in VA. The image was not as crisp as I had expected. My buddy and I started wondering.

    First IMAX corp has really made it hard to know what you are really seeing these days. My question is for this film which had “sections filmed in IMAX” what was the pipeline for the final presentation I viewed at an IMAX theater? Was it a true film print or digital projection? No info available. Was the non IMAX material blown up to 70mm for the whole film? Or was a 35mm print blown up to 70mm?
    I have read about a DI done with Company 3. So did they follow a 70mm path?

    My gut is that this is not TRULY a full IMAX project end to end. But really more akin to using a 4k camera in a HD production (dangerous analogy there).

    Do you guys have any info that could clarify this?

    Cheers,
    Jef

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